Shoelace



Dec. 27, 1938. T Ff 2,141,801

SHOELACE Filed May 4, 1937 Patented Dec. 27, 1938 UNITED STATES SHOELACESeymour Taft,

Flushing, N. Y.

Application May 4, 1937, Serial No. 140,605

Claims.

The present invention relates to an improvement in shoe laces, and hasfor its main advantage, the provision of means on said laces, wherebysaid laces, when in use on shoes and the ends are tied in the usual bowor tie knot, will not become inadvertently untied.

Said means, however, may be easily tied or untied, manually as desired,as the present advantageous feature does not, in any way interfere withthe normal lacing up of the shoe, either with eyelets or hooks and thefinal tying of the lace end holding knots.

As is well known, after ordinary shoe laces have been tied at their endsto maintain the desired lacing snugness on a shoe, they often becomeloosened, and the knot opens, liberating the tie ends of the lace,thereby permitting the shoe to have an unpleasant looseness, until thewearer reties the loose ends.

The foregoing noted and other features of advantage will be apprehendedas the herein description proceeds, and it will be obvious thatmodifications may be made in the structures herein disclosed, withoutdeparting from the spirit hereof or the scope of the appended claims.

In the drawing,

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary view of a shoe lace, broken for convenience inshowing;

Fig. 2 is a View of a broken lace showing the customary end securing tieknot;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged, sectional view taken on the line 3-3, Fig. 1,looking in the direction of the arrows;

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary section of a shoe lace, showing a modified formof means for preventing the untying of a tie knot; and

Fig. 5 is an enlarged sectional View taken on line 5--5, Fig. 3, lookingin the direction of the arrows.

In Fig. 1 is shown a shoe lace generally denoted by i, the extreme ends2-2 of which are tipped by the usual threading lace tips TT.

Adjacent the both ends of the lace and the tip ends T--T, and at spacedintervals are located a series of protuberances 3--333, Fig. 1, theseprotuberances being formed of small spherical objects such as beads i,Fig. 5, which may be made of any suitable hard material, of a diameterwhich will permit of their being easily passed through an ordinary shoeeyelet.

The lace shown in Figs. 1, 2, 3 and 5 is of the well known tubularweave, and the beads I, may be introduced within the tubular weave ofthe lace, during the weaving operation, or the beads may be insertedtherein after th lace has been out to length and tipped. The naturalsnugness of the weave about the beads 1, prevents them frominadvertently moving from their operative location in the lace ends.

The operative location of the beads i in plural spaced end positions, isfor the purpose of providing a plurality of tie-knot positions on shoesof varying sizes and in accord with the varying arch dimensions of thewearers foot. In this arrangement the tie knot such as 4, Fig. 2, may

occur at any point between the tip ends T- T, and the protuberancefurthest away from said ends TT, and a random tie knot 4, when made up,will always have, on opposite sides thereof at least one or moreprotuberances or obstructing bu1ges 3', Fig. 2, which if the tie knotshould loosen, would prevent the lace ends from pulling through the knotd, and thus prevent the tie knot from becoming entirely loosened andthereby slipping the lace ends entirely free of the knot 4. Theprotuberances 3 or 3' effectively prevent the inadvertent untying ofknot 4, but do not, in any manner, prevent the easy manual untying ofthe knot 4 or its easy manual tying.

In Fig. 4, there is shown a modified form of protuberance 6, on a shoelace 5-5, which lace, whileit may be of the tubular woven type asdescribed for Fig. 1, it may also be of a fiat woven type, which wouldnot permit of the introduction in its interior of a bead I or the like,and in which instance the protuberance may consist of a plurality oftightly tied knots, such as 6, Fig. 4, there being a spaced plurality ofthese to correspond to the protuberances 3-3 of Fig. 1. These knots I,when the ends of the lace is tied in a knot like 4, Fig. 2, are locatedat random positions I on opposite sides of the tie or bow knot i, andwhile they act exactly as described for the protuberances of the lace ofFig. 1, they permit of easy manual tying and untying.

Having thus described the invention what is claimed is:

1. A lace for a shoe having eyelets, said lace being adapted to be lacedthrough the eyelets and having end tips and a tying portion at each endadapted to betied in a bow knot; both tying portions being provided witha series of permanently fixed and spaced protuberances small enough topass through the eyelets and disposed throughout and beyond each tyingportion and said knot; one or more of said protuberances being adaptedto engage the cross portion of the knot and having the new function ofpreventing the protuberance and adjacent portion of the lace frompassing said cross portion when tied, thereby preventing the knot fromcoming untied, thereby adapting the lace to any ordinary type of shoe orother article to be fastened.

2. In combination, a shoe having eyelets; a shoe lace laced through theeyelets and having end tips and a tying portion at each end adapted tobe tied in a double bow knot; each tying portion being provided with aseries of spaced protuberances small enough to pass through the eyeletsand disposed throughout and beyond each tying portion and said knot; oneor more of said protuberances engaging the cross portion of the knot andhaving the new function of preventing the protuberance and adjacentportion of the lace from passing said cross portion, thereby preventingthe bow-knot or other tie-knot from coming untied.

3. A lace for a shoe having eyelets, said lace being adapted to passthrough the eyelets and having end tips and a tying portion at each endadapted to be tied in a bow knot; each tying portion being formed intomeans engaging the cross portion of the knot and ,having the newfunction of preventing the means and adjacent portion of the lace frompassing said cross portion, thereby preventing the knot of the lace ofany type of shoe eyelet or hook fromcoming untied, thereby preventinguntying by means carried only by the lace and not by the shoe, therebysaving expense.

4. In combination, a shoe having round eyelets and free of lacefastening means other than the round eyelets; a shoe lace laced throughthe eyelets and having end tips and a tying portion at each end adaptedto be tied in a knot; each tying portion being formed with aprotuberance; one or more of said protuberances engaging the crossportion of the knot and having the new function of preventing theprotuberance and adjacent portion of the lace from passing said crossportion, thereby preventing the knot from coming untied, without the useand expense of means additional to the laces.

5. A lace for a shoe having lace-engaging means by which the shoe isheld closed by the lace, said lace being adapted to be laced on saidengaging means and having a tying portion at each end adapted to be tiedin a bow knot; both tying portions being provided with a series ofpermanently fixed and spaced protuberances disposed throughout eachtying portion and said knot; one or more of said protuberances beingadapted to engage the cross portion of the knot and having the functionof preventing the protuberance and adjacent portion of the lace frompassing said cross portion when tied, thereby preventing the knot fromcoming untied.

SEYMOUR TAFT.

